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Due to Popular Demand I present The Beautiful Little Dragon with more content. Of course saying that it has any real end is questionable as any story has no real ending because there is always more to the lives of the characters, but there is a bit more of the story included here and perhaps if there is enough demand for it I can write another chapter sometime in the future. On a side note, if there is real interest in a continuance of the story I would like to find a good artist who can do some scenes from this story and possibly the next as well. If you are an artists and interested in this please send me a private message or a submission of your work and we can talk. I can't offer money for the work but I would be glad to write you a story if that interests you. Now to the Warnings.

This story contains Cub intercourse and several other things some readers may not approve of. If you are adverse or offended by this sort of material I urge you not to continue, though you are free as always to read if you wish.

End Warning ********************

The Beautiful Little Dragon

By: Heart Dragon

The house was quiet except for the light thrum and patter of rain on the roof and the leaves of the trees that grew all around the house. Sable had helped plant those trees with his parents and his brother when he was little and over the years they had grown wild and wonderful with their thick leaves and the wild spring blossoming of their pink flowers. He could see them out there through the window in the kitchen as he washed the last of the dishes he'd used to prepare dinner before sitting down at the table to eat.

The phone rang and buzzed harshly as the vibration made it rattle against the table. He sighed and took three hurried steps to grab it, hitting the button near the top to view the caller-ID in the window. It was Brandy White, the wife of Mark, a couple he met with twice a month at his brothers house in an attempt to socialize. His wife had been gone for over two years when, nine months ago, his brother had invited him over to meet their little socializing group that got together every other week to play a tabletop role playing game for the better part of the day while the three couples kids all played video games and just generally hung out. At first he'd been hesitant, but all of them had been friendly and supportive and none of them had wanted or needed to talk about his wife, his relationship or lack thereof, or any of the things that often made him so desperately uncomfortable around new people these days.

"Hey Brandy," Sable said as he hit the button to activate the speaker phone. "How goes the anniversary cruise?"

"Hi Sable. The cruise is going pretty good, but I've got a major problem." Brandy said. "I wouldn't think to impose on you like this but Ray, Lily, Mike, and Jessica all decided that since we were going to be gone this week anyway they should all head off to Fun World with their kids for the week and the sitter who was supposed to stay with Annie this week had some sort of family emergency this morning and isn't going to be able to stay for the rest of the week like we thought."

"Brandy, it's alright." Sable said calmingly to the clearly overwrought mother hare. "You're not imposing. I have plenty of space in the house here and I don't exactly have to go out to write so I don't mind watching her for a few days."

"You can?" She said, her voice clearly relieved. "Oh thank you. We can pay you what we were going to give the other sitter if you want. I will write you a check as soon as we get back."

"I appreciate that," Sable said, smiling just a little and shaking his head. "It's not necessary. Just enjoy your trip and I'll have Annie give you a call every day to check in."

"That sounds perfect Sable," She said. "We'll take you out to dinner when we get back then, promise. If you can pick her up at our place in an hour or so I'll call the sitter and let her know to help Annie get packed."

"You got it." Sable assured her. "One last thing. I was planning to hit a movie this afternoon. Is it okay if she sees that new dragon movie? I forget what its called off the top of my head. I know its rated R so I thought I had better check. I can always change my plans."

Brandy chuckled slightly, "Shes been watching R rated movies for a year or more and that one doesn't look too bad, just don't let her run around the house cursing up a storm after and don't let her get sick on popcorn." Brandy said only slightly reluctant.

"Great," Sable said. "I'm heading to pick her up now. I'll be there in about forty minutes if you want to let the sitter know."

"Thanks again Sable. You're a life saver." Brandy said and hung up.

Sable slipped the phone into his pocket then picked up the plate of hot dogs and dumped it into the trash. He hadn't really wanted them but he hadn't felt any motivation to leave the house until now either. Since he was going out he'd just treat himself and Annie to a nice lunch somewhere and catch an earlier movie.

The drive to the White's house was quite familiar since they lived only a block away from his brother's place. He pulled into the drive and put the Red Jeep into park then left it running as he climbed out and headed for the side kitchen door. He rang the bell and waited.

A few moments went by then the door opened just until it reached the end of the security chain and Sable could see Annie's right ear and nose as she looked through. "Oh hey Sable." She said, giving him a little shy smile that showed off the little gap between her front teeth. "Momma said you were coming to pick me up, but she didn't know the sitter had left already."

Sable nodded. "Can I come in? You can call you mom and make sure its okay first and let her know I'm here okay?" he said giving her a smile of his own.

The door shut and several minutes passed while he waited and listened to the sound of the girls muffled voice as she called Brandy, then he heard the chain rattle and the door opened wide enough to let him pass.

"Come in. I'll get my stuff." She said. "I forgot to pack before you got here. Sorry." She added as she headed towards her room.

Sable closed the door and sat down at the small round kitchen table to wait.

Several minutes later Annie reappeared carrying one of those mostly clear backpacks stuffed with clothes and other miscellaneous odds and ends she thought she would need. Most of what was visible was bundles of clothes, cosmetics, a game system and some games, and some other bathroom essentials. Annie stood just a few inches shorter than his shoulders, though her long ears reached almost to his eye level. Her fur was cream with patches of brown and her legs were coltishly long in her blue jeans. She wore a Montana Rider t-shirt featuring a man wearing cowboy gear and bearing a lasso riding a lean looking horse, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"I'm ready." Annie said. "Mom said we were gonna see Dragon's Eye?"

Sable smiled and nodded. "That's the plan."

"I like Dragons. I've asked if they'd let me play in the game but they think I'm still too young and you guys curse and lot and stuff." Annie said.

Sable nodded. "We talk about a lot of adult things while we're playing. I'm sure when you're older they'll let you join us." He smiled and stood. "Hey I have an idea. If you really want to try the game I have the books at home. We can make you a character and I'll run you through an adventure."

Annie giggled happily and bounced up and down with excitement. "Oh that would be fun."

"Okay," Sable said, getting to his paws. "Now you just need to tell me one thing."

"What?" Annie asked curiously as Sable opened the door and held it for her to follow him.

"Where do you want to stop to eat?" Sable said with a grin.

They ate at a small Italian restaurant a little off the path to the movie theater but since the next showing wasn't for another hour and a half Sable didn't mind. They both ate quietly as they sat across from each other. He had ordered the Chicken Parmesan and when she had asked about it he had suggested that she try the eggplant version of the same dish, since she likely wouldn't like the meat aspect of his own.

"Why do you eat meat?" She had asked shyly.

"Well I'm a fox. We need to eat meat to stay healthy." He explained.

"Do foxes eat hares?" She asked, her eyes wide.

Sable sighed. "Annie. I'm sure you know that there is a big difference between wild animals and us don't you?" She nodded and continued. "Yes fox do eat hares and rabbits sometimes, but I personally don't like rabbit, and one intelligent person doesn't eat another. That's our law."

She nodded. "So you wouldn't eat me?"

Sable chuckled. "No Honey I wouldn't ever eat you." He had assured her.

After the late lunch they'd gone to the movie and then stopped by the small game store down the road to pick her up a package of character sheets, though, he explained, they'd have to wait until tomorrow to start making her character."

When they arrived back at Sable's house, despite her excitement, she'd fallen asleep strapped into the passenger seat and he smiled over at her as her ears drooped and nearly touched the dashboard.

He shut off the engine and moved around to the passengers side and opened the door then leaned in and unbuckled her seat belt gently, being careful not to wake her. She stirred and yawned, then wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her carefully from the car with one arm supporting beneath her rear as she clung to him sleepily with arms and legs. He fumbled in his pocket for his keys and managed to fish them out as he made it to the door.

He carried her into the spare bedroom and pulled back the covers and sheets before lowering her gently to it. She rubbed her eyes and yawned but gave him a smile.

"Do you want to change before you go to bed?" He asked, remembering that he'd left her backpack in the car and would have to go back for it.

She shook her head and yawned again.

"Alright," Sable said. "Good night then."

He turned away and walked to the door, pausing for just a moment to stop at the dresser and switch on the little night light lamp his wife had put here for when her friend Rose and her son had stayed over. It didn't come on so he checked the bulb and found that it was fine, then checked and found that it had somehow come unplugged. He plugged it back in then turned and froze for a heartbeat as he looked back. Annie stood facing away from him with her jeans pulled down around her ankles and her shirt halfway over her head, her plain white cotton panties pulled up to the base of her tail, which wasn't the cotton ball cartoons implied but a short tapered tail about three inches long and covered in downy cream colored fur. Her tail arced down over her rear, pressing her panties tight against the gentle swell of her butt and he turned quickly before he could see anything else, his face heating uncomfortably. He quickly switched off the overhead light and left the room before she could realize he'd seen her. He pulled the rooms door almost too without letting it close completely then headed to get the rest of her things from the car.

By the time he returned with the backpack his face had stopped burning with embarrassment and he'd reassured himself that it was probably perfectly normal for her to dress and undress in front of her parents. If he mentioned it or made a big deal about it, that would be what made it a big deal, he'd decided, so he wouldn't. He peeked into the room and found her sound asleep, her breathing steady and quiet as she lay under the covers facing the wall. He didn't want to disturb her so he left the bag just outside and to the right of the door then walked back out to the living room.

First he attempted to make some progress on his new story, but that feel flat pretty quick when he couldn't stop thinking about the movie. It had been a particularly good movie he'd thought, with a good deal of action and a very likable pair of main characters in the dragon and the knight who'd fallen in love with her. Together they'd faced the dragon slayers and raised an army against the evil emperor and his own host of dragon riders and in the end the knight had become a king, though the dragon he'd fallen in love with had died in the final battle. The real end of the movie had been filled with implications of a sequel to come, a vial of some mysterious glowing liquid which Sable suspected had been taken from the kings dragon and would turn out to be some key to bringing her back to life later on in the movie series, and a dark servant of the defeated emperor carrying it across a stormy ocean and vowing to return one day.

He always felt like this after watching a particularly good movie that left a cliffhanger like that at the end. He was so distracted by the ideas for a good sequel to the movie running through his head that he couldn't concentrate on his own story without trying to write in the better bits of ideas which often didn't really fit his current book at all. Eventually he gave up on writing that and decided to get the movie ideas out by going ahead and putting some of them down, then an idea struck him and he smiled and reached for his game books. Annie had really loved the movie and she had been so sad at the end when the dragon had died and the king had been so unhappy, but maybe he could write her an ending she would like better by making their game a sort of continuation of the movie.

He wrote and created various wild beasts and monsters for her to encounter on her long journey and a bit of a story-line outline to tie it all together. He wrote until almost two o'clock in the morning before finding himself nodding off over his growing stack of papers and making himself put everything away and go to bed.

He woke to his alarm at eight o'clock and rolled out of bed, putting on a robe and heading to the kitchen where he found Annie already awake and bent over slightly to look through the glass into the oven. She wore a calf-length dress in blue and white with a little bow tied to her right ear near the base and as he walked in she stood and gave him a happy smile. "I'm making sweet rolls."

Sable raised an eyebrow. "You cook?"

Annie nodded. "I learned by helping Mom. She lets me cook all the time now as long as I clean up after myself, and I made sure to, see." She pointed to the trash can where she'd disposed of the little cardboard wrapper the orange rolls had come in.

Sable nodded. "I'm sorry. I should have gotten up earlier to make you breakfast."

Annie giggled. "It's okay. Momma sleeps in a lot now that I can make my own and I don't mind."

"Alright then," Sable said with a nod and a smile. He might have protested, but the orange sweet rolls did smell pretty good, and he often skipped breakfast completely when he was alone so the thought hadn't actually crossed his mind that he'd have to get up in time to cook something.

He went to the bathroom and got dressed just in time to return as she was spreading the sweet onto the rolls with a butter knife and she grinned as she brought the plate she'd transferred the rolls onto to the table.

"Can we start making a character now?" She asked, climbing into the chair to his right and brushing her skirt down as she sat cross-legged in the chair to raise herself to nearly his own eye level over the table.

"You don't want to watch cartoons or something?" He asked.

She shook her head and giggled. "Cartoons were over hours ago."

He raised an eyebrow. "How long have you been up?"

She shrugged. "Five thirty I think. I took a shower and stuff before I came in here and looked at the clock."

Sable suddenly felt extremely lazy for sleeping until eight or even nine o'clock, but then he realized that if he had a nine o'clock bedtime he'd likely wake up earlier as well. He decided not to hold it against himself and nodded in acquiescence. "Alright go get your character sheets."

He gathered up the book and his notes and dice and brought everything to the table while she ran to her room to get the character sheets from her pack where she'd put them when they left the game store the night before.

Soon they were sitting at the table eating sweet rolls as she read through the character creation section of the players handbook with a little frown on her face.

"What's the matter?" He asked.

She sighed. "I want to be a Dragon but I don't see one here."

Sable smiled. "Well that isn't one of the standard races for characters and I planned everything out for one of the basic choices. Do you like any of them?"

Annie frowned. "The elves are okay, but I really really wanted to be a Dragon. Can I please?"

Sable chuckles. "Alright. I'm pretty sure there are some rules for that somewhere. Give me a few minutes and I will find them."

She clapped her hands excitedly and smiled wide showing that cute little gap between her front teeth. "Yeah!"

He went to the computer and began looking up the rules for making a dragon character and printing them out. It wasn't what he'd planned, but he had a pretty good idea how to make everything he'd worked on last night smoothly fall into line if the character was a dragon instead of a normal adventurer, in fact, the storyline he'd worked up might actually be more fun to play through as a dragon than anything else.

It took until noon to finish up her character, Summer the Dragon, and by then it was sunny and pleasant outside so Sable called for a break before they started actually playing the game and suggested that they go get something to eat and pick up some of her favorite snacks and such to eat as they played. Annie agreed happily and they climbed into the car with Annie making notes and telling Sable all about her dragon's life story as they drove to Pizza Hut and ordered one large pizza for each of them, hers vegetarian supreme and his meat lovers.

While they waited for the pizzas they drove three blocks down to the grocery store and and went in to get appropriate gaming snacks. They came out ten minutes later burdened with bags of microwave popcorn, chips, frozen burritos, and about twenty assorted fruit pies. They swung by the pizza place and picked up their order then headed back to the house with their hoard of goodies.

They were sitting at the table eating pizza while Sable made a few changes to his game script and adjusted some of the scenarios he'd planned because of her characters size, when Annie asked, "What does meat taste like?"

Sable raised his head. "Well," He paused. "I suppose I've never actually thought about it before, but I don't suppose there's a way to describe it other than to describe the spices used to cook it in the first place. I guess it just tastes meaty." He shrugged. "Can you describe how an apple tastes without saying "it tastes like an apple?"

Annie smiled. "Yeah it tastes sweet and," she paused, frowning. "I guess other than sweet I can't do it after all."

"See." He said with a chuckle.

"Can I try some? It won't hurt me will it?" Annie said, looking both curious and dubious at the meat lovers pizza.

"I don't see why not. You're not physically a vegetarian like an animal is. You're an omnivore like me. It's just that most of us still tend to have a bit of a mental block where food is concerned, a bit of a leftover you might say." Sable explained.

She nodded and pulled a slice of the meaty pizza onto her plate then lifted it and sniffed at it gingerly, her little pink nose twitching and her eyes half closing as she took in the aroma of the meat. A moment later she took a small bite covered with sausage, bacon, and pepperoni, and began to chew. Her eyes opened wide with surprise and pleasure.

"You like it?" He asked, as curious as her at this point.

She nodded, chewed for a moment more, then swallowed, before saying, "Yeah, it's awesome!" She said with a half laugh, "but it feels so odd on my tongue. It's nothing like any vegetable I've ever had."

Suddenly he wondered if he should have let her try it in the first place. Her parents had stuck to a strictly vegetarian diet since he'd known them, though they didn't seem to have a problem with people who ate meat, that didn't mean that they wanted their daughter fed it behind their backs.

"Uh," he said, hesitantly, "I hope its okay with your mom that I let you eat that."

She nodded. "I'll ask to make sure when I call her after dinner, but she gave me hot dogs once and I didn't like them. They tasted weird and were all slippery and rubbery." She screwed up her face in distaste. "But this isn't like hot dog at all."

Sable nodded. "Well make sure you ask when you call, but until then maybe its best you only have the one slice okay?"

Annie nodded in agreement and continued to munch on the possibly forbidden pizza with obvious relish.

The call to Brandy resulted in the mother hare laughing her tail off on the other end of the phone as Sable insisted on apologizing for not asking her permission before letting Annie try meat. She had dismissed the potential affront as being of little importance. If her daughter liked meat all very well. They had never kept meat in the house and she'd never shown any particular interest in it before, but if that was what she liked they didn't have the least problem with it.

When Annie hung up the phone and returned to the table Sable felt genuinely reassured and glad that he hadn't accidentally done something wrong. He understood that it could have gone terribly had Brandy or her husband had a less lenient view of their dietary habits, but luckily that hadn't been the case.

"Summer is ready!" Annie chortled. "Lets have an adventure!"

Over the next few hours Summer visited the burnt out ruins of a castle destroyed in a great battle between the emperor and the kings dragon riders. This keep was where all the dragon riders had been trained and seasoned for the coming battle with the emperor. When the emperor had discovered its location he'd sent a force of his own to destroy it, but the kings dragon riders fought valiantly and many escaped into the mountains where they hid until the final battle.

Summer was too young, they said, to be a dragon mount, but she was magnificent, beautiful, and filled with furious fire, (Annie's own description,) and when her mother never returned from the wars she went looking for some sign of her. Upon finding the castle in ruins she glides as far south as she can and then begins a steady march overland. Since Summer is a young dragon she is unable to fly like adults but can only glide from a high place, though she can remain aloft for quite some time this way given fair winds. After many days of traveling, following rumor of the other dragons flight into the southern mountains after the destruction of the fortress, she meets a knight on the road making his way back to his home in the north. He is ragged, downhearted, and had not only been badly injured in the fighting of the war, but also his dragon bonded, who had been a male named Asturas the Brazen, had perished in the fighting, brought down by demon bats summoned up by the emperors war mage. The man had ridden his dragon screaming to the ground flailing and fighting with sword, shield, and mace, but he had ended up beneath his mount when they struck and despite the continued attacks of the demon creatures they had been unable to reach him under the body of his greatest friend, and so even in death his friend had saved his life.

Summer, and Annie, weep at the knights desperate tale of woe and loneliness, and she lays her head upon the knights lap as she cried. Now Summer does not know it yet because she has never actually met her mother, having been hatched and raised by the nannies, drakes with no speech but which served the dragons as caregivers using what limited magical abilities they possessed, but she truly was dragon royalty, the daughter of the great Queen dragon Rainell, which had been the name of the main dragon character in the movie. As the Dragon princess Summer had special powers that she did not yet know, and her tears were filled with magical power that healed the knight and filled him with a new purpose for his existence.

He kneels before Summer and pledges his sword, his shield, and his life, in her defense for the rest of his days. Summer happily accepts, wondering if this is how a dragon finds their rider, but when she hesitatingly offers to take his as rider, he becomes terribly sad and refuses gently but stubbornly, insisting that while he is truly devoted to her he cannot bring himself to take another dragon as mount after the loss of his beloved Asturas. At first Summer is a bit jealous of this, but as the game progresses she sees that the knight must be true to both his oaths to her as well as those he once made to his departed friend.

The knight has just traveled from the court of the new king and tells Summer that if they go before him, as he is just and wise, he will surely know how to find Summers mother and how she might find a real rider and be trained for combat. Summer is appeased by this and sets off south once again with the knight.

Along the road they meet ogres and barbarians and Summer is rescued from certain doom at the hands of a particularly evil barbarian shaman by her knight companion. In a daring rescue the knight strides into the camp and challenges the shaman to mortal combat, then after letting Annie make the rolls for her knight companion, he just manages to defeat the shaman, though he is terribly wounded and in desperate need when it is done. Summer tries to heal him once again with her tears, but to no use, she has not gained control over her powers and doesn't know how she managed the feat in the first place.

When she discovers that she cannot heal him she makes him climb onto her back despite his weak protests and runs as fast as she can manage back to a village they had passed half a day earlier where she quickly delivers him to the priest and begs for his assistance.

As Annie is talking to the priest almost every word is punctuated by a yawn and Sable closes his book of notes firmly.

"Alright that is enough for tonight." He said with a smile. The game had been even more fun than he'd expected. She had managed to play a quite mature character without many of the childish outbursts he might have expected from someone else her age.

"But I wanna know if Iiolon is okay." She protested.

Sable shook his head. "I know, but you're obviously getting too tired to continue tonight. You can find out what happens to Iiolon tomorrow."

Annie sighed but nodded in consent. "Alright. I'll go take my bath and stuff, but I won't be able to sleep."

He chuckled. "Oh I bet you will if you try. Now go on. I'll clean up this mess." He said, indicating the strew of snack wrappers they'd let pile up on the table as they played.

Less than a half-hour later when he went to check on her, he found her sound asleep half under the covers, this time wearing her pajamas he was glad to see, and her fur still slightly damp from the bath leaving a slightly darker patch on her pillow.

"Good night," he whispered and pulled the door close until only a small crack was left.

He didn't stay up too much later than her. He took a shower and brushed out his tail, something he found he'd neglected far too much of late as he gritted his teeth against the pain as he pulled out knot after knot along its silken length. He tried to watch something on television, but he just couldn't get into the story so he turned it back off and went to his desk. He managed to write almost an entire chapter on his new book, the story of the movies having finally released him, then shut it off and went to bed himself surprisingly early, setting his alarm for six the next morning.

When he woke up, she was already up, though she hadn't been for long, as she was still wearing the cute full body pajama's that were made to make her look like a panda bear including feet, and they both sat on the couch and watched the early morning cartoon shows he hadn't seen since he'd been her age. Of course he left the show choices up to her and experienced a strange mix he'd never have had when he watched cartoons. A mix of what they'd all called the girly shows as well as a few of those they'd liked made an appearance, though many of them were quite different than he remembered. Still, it was a pleasant couple of hours and when eight o'clock rolled around Sable asked if Annie was hungry.

They went out and he introduced her to the pleasures of McDonald's breakfast sandwiches then went to the grocery store again and picked up some things so they could have a nice lunch and dinner at the house. He'd decided that it probably wouldn't be good to get her used to eating out for every meal while her parents were gone after all, though a few times could be written off as special since it was spring break and all.

When they got back to the house it was around nine thirty and Annie headed right for the table. "Come on, let's play. I want to know how Iiolon is."

"Alright," Sable agreed with a smile. "Today we can play, but tomorrow I have to do some work on my book okay?"

Annie nodded instantly in agreement.

He sat down beside her and opened his book of notes, ready to continue the story.

The priest assured Summer that he could heal her friend, but to do so she would have to go into the mountains and acquire a rare herb found only along the shores of the ice cold mountain pools high up near the peaks where the snow elves make their home.

"The snow elves are pale skinned and have white hair the color of mine," Sable described, holding out his hand. "They are tall and fair and take many years to reach adulthood and then age no more until they are slain or until the world ends."

She smiles brightly at the description of the elves and touches his hand, stroking the silken fur that covers it. "You have beautiful fur." She said, "Their hair must be wonderful against all the white snow in the mountains."

"It is," He said, feeling a pleasant tingle at her stroking touch, though she seemed almost unaware that she was still doing it, her attention mostly on the story. "The priest tells you that they are a race of great warriors and magicians, but that they are not very friendly to strangers in their territory and may not wish for her to take the herb that he needs."

Summer assures the priest that she will find a way to convince the elves and sets off south and east towards the foot of the closest mountains. She spends two days climbing the steep mountainside and pushing her way through heavy snow, though luckily no storms roll in as she is making the climb, but as she approaches the high passes where she should find the pools where the herb grows, she is distracted by the sounds of some great battle and goes to investigate.

She finds a small group of snow elves desperately fighting for their lives against a pair of ice giants who hurl large chunks of ice down at their prey. Though the snow elves have taken cover among some boulders, the ice giants continue to rain ice down on them and Summer can see that if they leave they are certain to be killed but should they stay they will soon be buried beneath the broken ice.

Summer bravely rushes out, a match in size for one of the giants, if just barely, and roars at them ferociously attempting to scare them away from their prey, but they are almost as fierce as any dragon, and they know this one to be young and they do not flee. Summer roars again but to no effect, the giants hurl their balls of ice again, though this time they are aimed at her. She bats one aside, smashing it with a razor claw, but the other strikes her on the shoulder and she stumbles a pace back down the slope before recovering just in time to dodge another pair of the projectiles.

Despite her agility and size repeated hits have her bruised and sore as she continues to try to fight her way up slope to the giants above but each time she gets close they simply retreat a little further up the mountain and continue their attack, forcing her to try to chase them, but her intervention has saved the snow elves, and at least of of them decides to rally to her aid, a young wizard named Cullivan, who begins to assist by blasting some of the flying missiles from her path as she attempts to charge up the slope forcing the giants to flee and giving her a brief respite.

The young wizard runs up to her, his white hair flying in the snowy wind coming down from the peaks and introduces himself, offering to help defend her as she has defended them. She accepts and allows him to climb onto her back, and from the very moment that he sat upon her cool scaled spine, his legs feeling warm against her skin, they became one, dragon and rider, the very first pairing of wizard and dragon that the world had ever known.

With the help of the other three snow elves they finally managed to run the ice giants off deeper into the mountains but at least away from the village. The giants abandon their cave and the group finds several treasures there including an old and worn looking dragons breast stone, a jewel that helped dragons, who all had at least some talent with magic, to better focus their talents.

Annie was very pleased with the new treasure, which Sable provided her a drawing of, and told him that Summer asked her new friend Cullivan to put it on her immediately.

After explaining why she had come into the mountains the scouts lead her to the village where she meets with the elder there and tells him her plea. Cullivan supports her request and asks the elders permission to join her as she returns to town. The elder grants his permission for her to take the herb but tells Cullivan that their laws are quite clear. Should he depart with this stranger, no matter how friendly, he could not return because he would become separate from the magic that shrouded their home in the mountains and could be followed should he ever return.

Summer didn't like this proclamation and wanted to make the elder take back his words but Cullivan calmed her with a gentle stroking on her leg and a mental touch through the odd bond that was forming between them. Cullivan agreed to the terms and though he regretted it, he made the choice to leave with Summer and assist her in her quest.

When they returned the priest was able to use the herb to heal Iiolon to full health and vigor in only a few days, during which Cullivan began teaching Summer the basics of elven magic, which she showed quite some promise in. Once Iiolon had recovered enough they visited him and he immediately recognized the bond that had formed between them and congratulated her on finding herself a rider but was shocked when he discovered that the man was no warrior but a wizard.

When Iiolon had recovered fully the three set out once more south and slightly west along the feet of the mountains until they reached the city fortress of Ulambarda that had once been ruled over by the emperor and was now the capital city of the new king and home to his dragon knights.

By the time they reach this point in the story it is already getting late and both he and Annie were yawning.

After a particularly big yawn Sable smiled and closed his notes. "That's enough for today. He said. It's not really late yet but I was up earlier than I am used too. Maybe we could watch a movie and then go to bed?"

Annie smiled and climbed down off her chair. "Can we make popcorn?" She asked.

"Sure." Sable said. "I'll make popcorn and you can go get washed up and changed just in case you fall asleep during the movie?"

She nodded in agreement and headed for her room with a little skip.

By the time she'd bathed and gotten back into her pajamas he had two big bowls of popcorn slightly salted and waiting for them. "Go ahead and pick something." He said, carrying the bowls into the living room and setting them on the table.

After a few moments of indecision she chose Happy Feet from his DVD rack and he loaded it into the player as she sat down on the couch. He joined her as the movie began and they both sat eating popcorn for a time singing along with the toe tapping songs as the movie progressed, but about the time Happy Feet was trying to find a way back to his true love with the help of a penguin with the voice of Robin Williams, Annie scooted over and laid her head sideways in his lap, yawning but trying to stay awake.

He stroked her ears and head gently, feeling her warmth almost seeping into his soul somehow, at least slightly beginning to fill a space that had been cold and empty for quite some time. As the movie ended he craned his neck and saw that she was fast asleep. He shut off the TV and lifted her very gently in his arms, cradling her head, and carried her quietly into her bedroom where he put her carefully in bed and pulled the covers over her gently snoring form.

Not long after he stood in the bathroom and slipped off his robe. Stepping into the hot spray of the shower jets. He felt the coolness returning to that place somewhere inside him and grieved. He didn't want it to go and he knew what it had been most like so he closed his eyes and intentionally thought of his wife for the first time in months. He didn't think of her the way she had looked on the coroners monitor when he'd been called in to identify her, the only way he'd been able to imagine her for quite some time, but as she'd looked on their last night together, the car accident hours in the future and unsuspected by the two lovers who clung to one another in a warm tender embrace.

He remembered her lips and her teeth and her tongue all pressing with his as they kissed and stroked each others fur. At the memory he felt his manhood stiffen and begin to slide from its sheath and ran his hand down his own thigh and begin softly rubbing the sensitive pink tip of it with the silky pads of his hand. He slid back his sheath slowly as he grew more aroused and stroked his padded palm along the underside of his shaft until he reached the base then closed his hand over the gently throbbing member.

He stroked slowly, his eyes closed, as he remembered the feel of her fur against his legs and chest and neck. How she arched her back as he entered her and the little pleasured yipping sounds she'd made as her eyes half-opened to look at him with desire, her deep emerald eyes, sparkling with pleasure, but suddenly his hand stopped stroking, frozen in a moment of both shock and pleasure, as he realized that it was not his wife's emerald green eyes but the slightly lighter green of spring grass, the eyes of Annie. It was her that pressed her butt up against him, trying, trying, to take his length inside her, her lips parted and her eyes half-closed. He came suddenly and with an almost titanic force even as his eyes popped open and he was filled with shame. His cum splattered against the shower wall and his hips thrust forwards several times uncontrollably. Though he no longer really wanted the release the way he had there was no stopping it now, so he finished up as quickly as he could, feeling the slight shakiness in his legs that always came after a big release, and washed up quickly when it was through.

By the time he had finished his shower he had reassured himself completely that it had been a quirk of his mind, the similarity he hadn't even realized between the color of their eyes, nothing more than that, and around two o'clock in the morning he finally managed to fall asleep with those platitudes repeating in his head.

The next day he didn't wake up as early as he had the day before. He'd meant too, but around one o'clock he'd adjusted his alarm for eight and reassured himself that Annie was pretty good about taking care of herself in the morning. When he came into the kitchen she was already dressed in a new little white cotton dress covered with yellow daisies. He smiled as he saw her and felt a wash of relief as no feeling stirred inside him except the normal pleasure at seeing her.

She returned his smile and giggled. "You're up late today." She scolded. "You missed cartoons."

He chuckled. "I know. I'm sorry, but I had some trouble sleeping last night and wanted to sleep in just a little. Did you find something for breakfast?"

She nodded. "I had some cereal. Is it okay if I finish the movie? I sort of fell asleep before the end last night. You were just so warm I couldn't help it."

"That's fine, just keep it turned down okay, I have to get at least a little work done today if I can. I'll take the laptop into my bedroom if you'll be okay out here alone?"

"Yeah, no problem." She said, skipping to the living room and pulling out the Happy Feet case.

He nodded and returned to his room, got dressed quickly, and powered on his laptop.

He wrote until a little after noon before he even realized what time it was. Annie must have finished her movie hours ago. He wondered what she'd found to do on her own without interrupting him.

He got up and stretched then headed out into the kitchen where he found her hard at work scribbling over a notebook on the kitchen table.

"Hey," he said. "What you up too?"

She grinned and closed the notebook quickly. "Its a surprise." She said happily.

"Oh, okay." Sable said slightly perplexed but accepting. He didn't see what harm there could possibly be in anything she might be writing, so he changed the subject. "You hungry?"

She smiled and nodded.

"I sort of got distracted and forgot about lunch." Sable said, "Sorry."

She shook her head. "I forgot too until now."

"Hey, it's a really nice day out and we've kept ourselves inside a little too much. Why don't we take a little picnic lunch out under the cherry trees?" Sable suggested.

She jumped off her chair and giggled as she wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him with delight. "Yeah lets do that!" She said and headed for the fridge.

They put together a lunch for two and packed it into a little basket he kept on top of the fridge then headed out into the sunlit spring afternoon. The smell of the cherry blossoms was strong in his nose as he found a little spot between two of the trees where there was enough sun to warm the fresh new grass and spread out the picnic cloth from the basket and began setting out the food then stopped to watch as Annie darted in and around the cherry trees laughing and running with her arms outstretched as if she were flying.

She ran over and stopped beside him, giggling and smiling happily as the sun played across her face in patterns of moving light and her dress swayed around her legs in the slight breeze coming over the fields beyond the trees.

"Let's play Dragon!" Annie said to him, grabbing his arm. "I am the beautiful dragon princess and you are the knight that has been ordered to hunt me down!" She swooped around the tree, running and laughing.

Sable hesitated, but after a moment he rose and walked over nearer to her. "Okay," he said. "I have been sent to destroy you," he says in a comically sinister voice.

She squeals, what is probably supposed to be a roar, and rushes over to him and bats at him with imaginary wings. "He, he," she says, "I knock you down with my powerful wings."

He falls to the ground and rolls in the grass just like a kid, an almost inadvertent laugh coming from his lips as he feels a strange joy fill him. "But I recover and charge in with my sword and shield at the ready!" He says, taking a mock fighting stance, though on his knees so that she was actually slightly taller than he.

She grabs his arm with her hand and says, "I have you in my talons," She spreads out her other arm like a wing and says "I am flying high above the earth with you in my grasp." She smiles and lets go with her hand and spreads her other arm. "Make me fly!" She calls to him.

He grins happily and picks her up beneath the arms and lifts her as high as he can. She giggles happily and he zooms her around for a second, but she is a little big for him to hold up for long, so he tries to adjust and moves one hand to her leg intending to fly her sideways, but his hand slips and she almost falls. He catches her, but not before he feels his fingers sink into something warm, tight, and moist between her legs.

"Where are her panties?" is his first thought, supplanted almost immediately with concern as she cried out in pain, a sharp cry followed by a small sob. He hurriedly put her down on her feet, though she sank immediately to the ground as he let he go and quickly removed his hand from beneath her dress.

"I'm so sorry Annie," he said as she clutched at her crotch. "I didn't mean to hurt you." He raised his hand and saw blood on his fingers.

His first thought was that he'd scratched her with his claws, but then he realized how far down his fingers she'd actually slid and he quickly gathered her up in his arms and rushed inside with her, cradling her to his chest all the time muttering how sorry he was.

A few minutes later Annie sat on the toilet, her eyes still slightly wet but no longer really crying, and with a wad of toilet paper pressed between her legs. Her pretty white dress with the yellow flowers had been stained with several drips of blood and it now lay on the floor of the bathroom as Sable did his best not to look at her directly.

"It's okay mister Sable." She said, sniffing just a little. "It was an accident. I've had worse scrapes. Just not on my heiny." She blushed and pulled the blood sticky toilet paper away and looked at herself. "It stopped bleeding, see. I'm okay." She assured him.

Sable nodded without turning to look and headed for the bathroom door. "Okay honey. Can you get cleaned up okay by yourself?" he asked, needing to get out of the bathroom. It wasn't just her nakedness but the fact that he could still feel the warm center of her against his flesh and every time he almost glanced at her he could feel himself stirring with arousal he didn't want.

"Yes." She said, turning the knob on the shower to start the water.

He hurried from the room, heading towards his bedroom at a quick pace and swinging the door almost closed behind him. He raised the two fingers to his nose and sniffed lightly, almost unwillingly, and drew in a miasma of the spicy sweet coppery smell of blood and her dried juices matting his fur. He felt his knot swelling inside his sheath and couldn't help himself. He unbuckled his pants and swept them down to his ankles. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scent again, taking his erect member in the other hand and stroking back hard to free his expanding knot from his sheath.

He groaned lightly as it popped loose of the enfolding skin and he sunk himself into his own silken palm rapidly trusting. His peak was rising quickly and he felt the urge and did not stop himself as he began to lick his fingers clean.

He was just feeling the rise of his climax coming like a wave from a great distance as he continued to thrust into his palm when he heard the clear squeak of his bedroom door swinging open and he stopped, caught in a stop motion parody of the act in which he was found, and turned his head to see Annie standing in the door one arm wrapped around her upper body, and her eyes wide and round as she looked in on him, his manhood hard in his hand and his knot pressed hard against his stomach. She was naked, her cream and brown fur damp from the shower. His eyes were drawn to where her other hand lay just below her belly at the place where her mound peeked from between her legs. She rubbed almost unconsciously there, her fingers sliding gently on top of and then away from the tiny bit of her slit that showed.

"What," she said, biting her lower lip in a shy way that almost made him cum instantly at seeing it. "I feel weird." She said, looking down at her crotch where her hand continued to rub.

Sable let go of himself, hurriedly wrapped up in a robe, and went to her side. "What is it sweet heart?" He asked, his concern for her driving thoughts of his indiscretion from his mind for the time being at least.

She spread her legs and cupped her hand against her mound, pressing firmly. "Don't know." She managed to say. "It started this morning. I think its why your hand slipped too." She touched the fur on her thigh and her palm came away slightly damp and slick with her own juices.

"Here," Sable said, lifting her up onto his bed. "Let me look okay?" He said, his heart suddenly fluttering in his chest like a captured bird.

She spread her legs to reveal her sopping mound. It was slightly swollen and as she spread her knees wider her soft nether lips spread apart to reveal the soft moist pink folds within. The smell wafting from her exposed sex clawed into his nose and up into his brain but he battered it down. This was not the time to be losing control of himself. This young hare had gone into heat and here they were sitting in his bedroom both almost naked with her spread open before him. He could feel himself shaking all over but he pressed her knees back together firmly and lowered himself next to her on the bed. Beneath his robe his cock throbbed almost painfully but he ignored it.

"Sweet heart," he started then paused. "Maybe it would be better for your momma explained this to you."

"Explained what?" She asked, her fingers stroking down between her legs, seeking and rubbing, unable to satisfy some itch she felt.

He sighed. "Did your momma tell you about becoming a woman?"

She looked at him with wide eyes and nodded, her hand still rubbing, touching, and the smell of her rising all around him in a fog of hormones and sex. Usually parents had some inkling that this was coming, but sometimes it really did happen for their kind just this fast especially if it happened as early as it seemed to be happening for poor Annie.

"When mommies get ready to have babies with daddies." She said and gave a little moan, though he was pretty sure that was because her fingers had just sunk inside her streaming slit and were rubbing and rubbing.

Sable nodded.

"So you're supposed to put that," she pointed at the obvious bulge in his robe, "inside my heiny to make it better?" She asked.

"Sort of," Sable said, trying to figure out some way to explain.

She spread her legs wide and reached beneath his robe, groping. "Oh please its so..." she stopped, unable to describe just what her raging hormones were doing to her body and mind. "Please put it in me." She begged.

Sable shook his head, somehow managing to keep himself under control. He knew it wasn't complete control by any means or he'd have already left the room and called her mother to have someone come take her until this had passed, but he at least kept himself from plunging his muzzle down between her legs right that moment and explain why he just couldn't.

"Annie. As much as I love you and would like to do that for you to make it feel better I am a fox and when a fox mates it is for life. You are so young and if we do anything like that as far as the law is concerned we will be as good as married. I would be happy to take responsibility for you as my wife but you don't have to tie yourself to me that way. You're still very young and will find someone your own age who will be a better match for you later when you aren't so mixed up as you are now."

Annie sniffed, obviously in turmoil both in her mind and body, but she nodded in agreement. "Can you at least hold me until I fall asleep?" She asked, her hand still rubbing, trying to achieve something she didn't even yet have a name for.

He knew that he shouldn't, that it would be too big a risk, but he couldn't leave her that way in confusion and pain alone, so he nodded and scooted up into the bed then drew the blankets up around him and drew her against his chest firmly holding her close as she continued to rub and fondle herself ceaselessly with one hand as she clutched at him with the other.

Soon he found himself drowsing, his mind tired out by his constant battle against the sheer animal smell that filled the room and his head. He felt gentle pressure against his penis which had finally retreated back into its sheath and felt it harden once again. He opened his eyes and saw only Annie's raised tail and the gaping dripping hole of her pink swollen pussy inches from his muzzle as she burrowed beneath the blankets tentatively touching the rising swell of his cock.

He didn't have the strength to resist. He put a hand on either side of her tail and pulled her onto his muzzle. She gave a short burst of surprised breath and then moaned as his tongue skillfully swept across all her most tender places like the tongue of a hummingbird dipping into the flower for its nectar. He could feel her flesh quiver beneath his paws and as she realized just what he must be doing she tasted him in return, her tongue swiping unskillfully but still pleasantly over the tip of his cock as it expanded from his sheath. He could feel her hands wrapped around its back and he pushed gently against them with his hips to free his entire length before his knot could form inside then began licking up her juices in earnest. He savored the spicy flavor of her spill, licking it up in what seemed almost gallons from her thighs where it had soaked her fur.

She had taken some of him into her mouth, and though she had initially scraped him a little with her teeth, she had made some progress when he drew back his muzzle now dripping with her and pulled her from beneath the covers. She gave a little moan of dissatisfaction but came out willingly enough, her eyes slightly glazed with the pleasure and relief he'd already given her.

"Put it in me." She said, touching her mound with a groan of need.

This time she didn't have to tell him twice. He slid half picked her up, letting her get her knees under her, and sat her on his stomach just above his penis. He grasped it firmly and slid it up her backside against the lips of her, wetting it further with her spill and pressing his tip just inside her as he stroked his cock to transfer her natural lubricant onto himself.

"Go slow little one." He growled as she pushed back against his constraining hands. She was swollen and ready, but she was young and tender, and still a bit small to take him without a bit of patience.

She moaned in protest but let him slowly lower her onto his swollen manhood. She cried out as his girth began to stretch her, though not in pain, though that would change if he didn't stop and let her adjust to his size. He made himself wait several seconds before pushing her another quarter inch down onto him.

She was quivering with pleasure and building greater need for more and she leaned in and kissed him as he finally pushed past his thickest girth and slid slowly into her until his swollen know pressed right up against her glistening warm mound. He could feel every muscle inside her clenching and releasing in rapid beats against him counter pointed with a thrumming that could be either his heart beat or hers, he wasn't sure. She broke the kiss and pushed herself up along his shaft then let herself down again, her head going back and her back arching against his arms as he embraced her.

"Oh please..." She said unthinkingly, "Oh please please."

He thrust into her a little harder, a little faster, her body rocking in rhythm to every thrust, her lips parted and her face pressed firmly into his chest as she returned nearly every thrust of his hips with an unconscious one of her own. He could feel himself rising to a peak but she reached one before he could see his quite on the horizon, her mouth opening in a big surprised 'oh' as she clutched onto him tighter than ever and her entire form quaked and bucked with the release of her first orgasm. He slowed in his thrusting as her body finished and she raised her eyes to his.

"Oh it was so wonderful." She said, her eyes brimming with tears.

He smiled and drew her down to kiss him again as he resumed thrusting into her. "One more then? He asked

She nodded and gave another moan of pleasure as he began working her upwards once again. Soon she was helping again, her hands pressed against his belly as she thrust her hips again and again driving him into her harder and harder. He groaned in pleasure hoping to hold off long enough for her to release once again. He can see it coming in her face and the tilt of her head as she presses harder down on top of him until finally the combined thrust of her onto him and him up to meet her sinks his knot painfully inside her. She lets out a long moan but the sensation is as much pleasure and relief as it is pain as a new wave washes over her, this one not a tsunami as the first had been but a raging storm that came in from all directions at once. She cried out inarticulately in release even as Sable groaned and felt the tip of him drive against her cervix as he began to spray hot sticky ropes of his fertile seed into her waiting womb.

When it was over he held her tight until her trembling muscles relaxed and she snuggled against him, burying her face in his chest fur. He was still tied tightly inside her but that only seemed to bring her comfort, relief from the needs of her body, and for him it was like being clutched in warm silk through which he could feel her every heartbeat right along with his own.

He slid free a few minutes later along with a flowing mixture of his cum and her spill that splattered over his crotch and thighs. Annie had fallen asleep, exhausted by all that had happened, and he smiled as he laid her down beside him gently and began licking her clean, as a good lover did, before the fluids could dry in her fur. He was careful not to wake her, and when he was finished he also cleaned the bed as best as he could before drawing the blankets up around her and putting a final kiss on her forehead.

He left the room, glancing at the clock. It was almost two. He wasn't positive what time it would be on the ship, wherever it was, but he needed to call Brandy now, before he could change his mind.

When he'd explained how the law worked to little Annie he'd tried to put it in a way that she could understand, but it wasn't nearly as simple as he'd tried to make it sound. The laws the governed furs were based off those of the humans that had made them, but real differences in their physiology and psychology made it impossible to apply those laws to them in every respect. In this instance there were two laws that applied. The first law involved mating with a minor. Had she not been in heat he'd have possibly faced severe penalties for rape, molestation, assault, and likely several other charges, but because furs had many of the same nearly uncontrollable mating instincts of the animals their genetics had been mixed with, and much keener senses than humans had, he would face only the consequences of the mating, which was responsibility for the children that were surely already growing inside her even now. If she, or her parents, required it he would also be required to take her as his wife to legitimize those offspring, which brought him to the second law. That was the law of partnership. He wasn't even sure how that one would apply since he was male and the law had been written to protect pairings between females of a species that mated for life, forming a psychological bond during mating that could not be broken except by the death of one partner, such as the fox or the penguin, who chose to mate with a male of a species which did not mate for life. In those pairings the male partner was required to undergo an artificial bonding or to be put to death at the request of the female he had mated with. He knew that he wouldn't be invoking that law against Annie no matter what else happened, even though he could feel her as a warm brightness in his mind even now, the connection of his life bond to her, though the existence of that bond meant that as long as she lived he would be incapable of mating with another female of any species.

He picked up the phone and dialed. A few minutes later a sleepy sounding Brandy came on. "Sable? What time is it there?"

"Just after two." He replied. "I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I wasn't sure what time zone you're in, but this call couldn't wait."

"What's wrong? Did something happen to Annie? Is she okay?" Brandy's voice was suddenly sharper, less fuzzy with sleep, concerned.

"She is fine. Well not exactly fine, but she isn't hurt." Sable said. "Brandy she's in heat."

"Oh Sable, no," She said, "You'll have to call the hospital. She'll have to be put in isolation until it passes. Did you shut her in her room? Hang up and call them now."

"Brandy. It's too late for that." He said, his voice soft and apologetic. "She didn't realize what it was when it started and by the time I figured it out it was too late to stop it."

She was silent for a long time, though he could tell that she was still on the line from her heavy breathing. When she finally spoke again it was in a voice of imposed calm.

"Did you have a condom?" She asked, almost pleading.

"I'm sorry Brandy," He repeated. "I couldn't have planned for this. She's so young. I didn't expect..."

"You should have locked her in a room, or run to the neighbors as soon as you realized!" She shouted at him. "I don't care what you expected or didn't." She paused to calm herself and when she spoke again her calm tone had returned. "I'm sorry Sable, you're right. If we'd even thought she would start this young we wouldn't have left in the first place, but this is serious. Mark is going to go nuclear when he finds out. You're lucky we're stuck on this boat for another three days."

"What are we going to do Brandy?" Sable pleaded. "I can live with it if you think its best I never see her again, but you know about my species. I want to work it out. I love her."

"Oh Jesus Christ Sable," Brandy said, her voice actually kind. "You've bonded to her. I didn't even consider that. Is she even going to understand all of this? I know she's technically a woman now, but she's not even ten years old yet."

"Brandy I won't try to make her bond with me." Sable told her.

"No, she'll have to make that choice herself." Brandy said with a sigh. "I'm just not sure she's ready for it. It might be years before she's ready."

"I can wait." Sable tried to assure her.

"You know you can't." Brandy said acidly. "If we take her away from you for a year you'll be little more than a skeleton. You won't eat, you won't be able to sleep, you'll die and you know it as well as I do."

Sable sighed. It was true. That was why life bonding species had absolutely required a law to control mating with them, especially a female. When one side of a life bond couldn't be with his or her partner for extended periods of time they began to waste away. It wasn't a conscious choice they made, it was just the way the bonding worked, and many females had left orphaned offspring behind when their mates had left them and they wasted away in silent pain. Sometimes the bond was so strong that when one half of the pairing died the other still suffered the same fate, something his brother had worried over for quite some time when Sables wife had died.

"You can still let us see each other. She will want to see her baby after all." He said. "So we can still see each other."

"Whose having a baby?" Annie's voice asked from behind him, startling him into dropping the phone on the table with a bang. The screen cracked as it hit sending jagged lines across its face.

Sable turned and saw Annie standing there just behind him, one hand raised to rub a sleep bleary eye. She was still nude, her legs slightly apart, and her scent was returning to that mind blurring odor of heat that had finally overwhelmed him before. He turned his attention quickly back to the phone, feeling his cheeks heat even as that new glow flared in the back of his mind and his heart fluttered pleasantly with the joy of her.

Sable could hear Brandy saying something, though he couldn't make out what it was, so he pushed the speaker button.

"Can you hear me?" She was asking.

"Sorry Brandy. I dropped my phone. What were you saying?" Sable said.

"Sable, give the phone to Annie and please leave the room." Brandy instructed, her voice giving no sign that any part of this should be optional.

Sable left the phone on the table and rose. He'd take a shower, he thought, feeling the dried fluids pulling in his fur as he moved away from the chair to allow Annie to climb into it.

"I'll be in the shower." Sable said.

Brandy sighed. "We'll need to talk again Sable. I'll call back in a few hours, after Mark wakes up and I get a chance to try and explain all this."

"I'll talk to you then." Sable said, and headed for the bathroom, hearing just the first few words as Brandy began talking with her daughter.

"Sweety, Annie, do you understand what's happening honey?" He heard her ask gently as he closed the door and blocked off the sound of her voice.

He turned the knob to start the water running and waited the few seconds it took for steam to start rising from the spray as it heated, then adjusted the flow to a comfortable temperature before stepping under the running water. It washed over him in a ripple of tension relieving warmth. He scrubbed at his sticky, matted fur, washing the remains of his own seed and her spill from his fur crotch and thighs before just standing under the spray, letting the warm water spill over his head and down around his muzzle, his eyes closed. He wasn't sure how long he stayed that way, but he remained there until the sound of the door softly clicking open drew his attention.

"Sable?" Annie asked, a little shyly, as she stepped into the bathroom.

He pulled back the shower curtain and glanced out. She stood just inside the door, a hand on either side of her tummy, her face looking down at it. "Momma says you put a baby in my tummy last night." She said, looking up at him. She was biting her lower lip in the same way she had done earlier when she'd come into his bedroom full of a need she hadn't understood.

Sable nodded and attempted to look grave.

"I asked Momma if I was your wife now and she said no." She said, her nose twitching rapidly and her eyes filling with tears. "I thought you wanted me to be your wife." She sobbed. "Why didn't you tell Momma I could be?"

"Honey," Sable said, "It's not a matter of what I want. It's very complicated. You're so young and you don't have the mating bond. You might have a baby, but if you don't want it I can take care of him or her for you and you don't have to see me any more. You could find another mate when you're older."

"I don't want another mate. I want to be your mate." Annie said, sobbing harder. "Why don't you want me Sable?"

"You might change your mind." Sable explained. "When you're older you might not want me the same way you do right now. You're body is sort of mixing up your emotions right now. In another few days you might not even think of me the way you do now."

"I promise I won't," She cried, grabbing his arm, as the only part of him she could easily reach, and hugging it to her chest. "If you want me to be your wife I will. I won't want someone else when I'm old I swear. I'll even do that bonding thing like you do."

"Annie," Sable said. "I wouldn't let you do that even if you could."

"But I love you Sable," She said, wiping her eyes and releasing his arm. "I want to."

"You don't understand." He said again, shaking his head, his own eyes filling with unwanted tears that ran down his muzzle to mix into the wet fur there. "You are just too young to see, but you will see as you get older."

"I'm not stupid." She said. "I might not be all grown up, but I know what I want and how I feel about things. I hate peanut butter. That hasn't changed. I don't like the smell of salmon fish. That hasn't changed either, and I love you, and that isn't going to change." She pulled back the shower curtain and stepped boldly into the tub beside him, wrapping her arms around his middle and burying her face in his belly fur. "I love you Sable." She insisted again.

There was no scent of her coming to him this time to blur his brain, the flowing water of the shower was washing it down the drain, but there was the beating pulse of that glow inside him, the one that had been so absent for so long, and as she hugged him he could feel her heartbeat pulsing almost in time with that glow. He reached down and lifted her up his body and she let him, wrapping her legs around him as he raised her up. She let her head come to rest on his shoulder, her nose snuffling at his neck as he just held her there for some unknown time. There was no sexuality in the embrace they shared, only emotion and peace.

"I love you," she whispered into his ear again after some time, leaning back so she could look into his eyes. "Show me how adults kiss each other Sable. I want you to kiss me that way." She said, pressing her nose against his.

He did. He pressed his lips against hers gently then ran his tongue lightly over her lips until she parted them and let her own tongue tentatively touch his. She giggled in delight as they kissed and he pulled back.

"Oh, why'd you stop you bad Sable," She said with a mock frown.

Sable smiled. "I suppose I'm not used to a lady giggling when I kiss her." He said.

"Well," she said with an air of dignity. "I guess you'll just have to get used to it."

She kissed him again, parting her lips wider to give his tongue better access.

They kissed for several minutes that way before Sable sighed and pulled away, lowering her back to her feet. "We have to stop." He said. "Or I won't be able to control myself again in a minute."

She looked up at him shyly and giggled, then tentatively reached up and cupped the silky furred hanging part of him in one hand.

"Momma says the horse is already out of the barn, no use in closing the gate now." Annie said, leaning in as the very tip of his member poked out of his sheath. She kissed it lightly then craned her neck to look up at him. "I need it again." She said, "Will you give it?"

He looked down at her for a moment, wondering if she really would love him once her heat had faded, if she really could be his forever, and hoping it could be true, and nodded.

She smiled and turned her attention to his maleness. Her lips kissed it gently and her hand clumsily pulled at his sheath, but soon she had figured it out and was pulling the loose skin down as she wrapped her lips around his growing member. She took her mouth off him for a moment and looked up at him again. "It tastes different. Less sour." She said. "I liked it better before. It made me feel different in my stomach, better."

He nodded. "That was partially you sweet heart." He said, "You're heat smell makes a males body produce hormones in response. The shower washed most of that away.

She ran her tongue up the base of his shaft, tasting it again, then wrapped it between her lips once more without commenting further having apparently decided that it was well enough as it was. Her teeth clipped his member more than once as she inexpertly suckled him, but the reactions of his body seemed to tell her that the sensation was unpleasant and she improved quickly. Soon his hips were rocking forward and his knot was rising inside her silken hand.

He almost groaned aloud when she stopped to examine the rising knot. "What is that?" She asked, rubbing it inside her closed hand. "Did I have that inside me?" She asked.

He looked down and saw that her free hand had made its way between her legs as she played with him and was rubbing there as the other one explored his maleness. "That's the part of me that holds us together when my seed comes out so it all goes where its supposed too."

"Seed?" She asked.

"Yes. The stuff men put inside a female during mating that makes babies." He explained. "It's usually called cumming or having an orgasm. Females have them too, but they don't have seed but what we call spill, a slick wet stuff that makes it easier for a man to put himself inside."

She looked up at him. "Make me cum?" She asked, her nose twitching shyly.

He lowered himself to his knees, the warm spray of the shower running down his back. "Okay," he agreed, moving his muzzle to one of her small but erect nipples. He moved one hand to her butt and the other cupped her mound, already wet with spill brought out by her own seeking fingers, with her hand beneath it. He carefully moved her fingers, guiding her to the swollen nub at the front of her slit, and gently pressed her own finger against it drawing a gasp of pleasure from her. She licked her lips and repeated the motion, her hips rocking forward against her pressing fingers and his.

"Just keep rubbing, circling around that little bump gently." He instructed, and slid his fingers back and inside her flowering bud until he was knuckle deep. He curled his finger forward until it found the second spot there. He pressed on it gently but steadily and she cried out as the combined feeling from both pleasure points raced up her spine. Her hips didn't just rock now but bucked forward trying to drive his fingers deeper, but he held her rear and didn't let her disrupt the pressure.

A moan escaped her lips, her eyes were close, and her fingers had stopped rubbing, but he could feel all her muscles trembling, right on the edge. He pulled her forward and buried his muzzle into the cleft where her legs came together pressing his warm silken nose firmly over the nub at the front of her slit.

She cried out, her head going back, "ah... ah... ohhhh..." Her back arched and her legs gave out, but he was ready for that, and caught her. He picked her up in his arms, her entire body quivering in pleasure, and rose, pushing her back against the tiled wall at the back of the shower. He helped her raise her arms, showing her to grip the towel rack that was mounted there, then reached down to take his throbbing cock in his hand, guiding it between her spread legs while he supported her with the other hand on her rear until his tip slid insider silken, dripping, slick, folds of her sex.

She whimpered as he slowly pushed himself inside her, though it was a whimper of desire not of pain. Her walls pulsed around his shaft as he slowly drove it into her, holding back enough not to hurt as she stretched to match his girth. He leaned in and kissed her passionately and after just a moment she began returning the kiss and he breathed in as she breathed out, taking her into himself as he put himself inside her.

When he was buried inside her right up to his knot he pulled back a couple of inches and thrust forward and back, forward and back, rapidly several times. She made little gasping sounds as he pressed the flesh of his knot against her harder, rubbing it against her clit with each stroke, rotating his hips slightly each time he drove inside her. She put her arms around his neck and buried her muzzle into his fur, small chirping sounds being driven out of her as he moved faster, building towards a crescendo. She arched her back and suddenly made a long high guttural cry as she came again, though this time it was smooth and steady and the peak was much higher as he continued to ride her even as it rose, holding it at its height with steady rubbing pressure against every pulsating part of her.

Suddenly she bit him, her mouth clamping onto his shoulder in unconscious pure sexual pleasure as she rode the long cresting wave of her orgasm. That bite, the sharing of his blood with his mate, was instinctual and undeniable. He cried out as he began to cum, both his hands clasped against her butt as he pulsed into her over and over again. He didn't just fill her but overfilled her. Without his knot inside, the flow of her spill mixed with his spunk came pouring out of her and down the front of his legs. He thrust into her a few more times, but soon he was completely spent and he could feel his own knees trembling, threatening to give out, and withdrew himself from her. As he withdrew from her body her mouth let go of his flesh and she looked at him in surprise and just a little fear.

"I'm sorry I bit you," She started to say, his blood staining her lips, but he kissed her fiercely, wanting to share the taste of his blood in her mouth.

He lowered them to the floor of the tub and let the water wash over them both as they kissed and held each other for long moments, enjoying all the slippery feeling muscles of their mutual release as well as the warm flow of the water washing them both clean of the resulting mess of their act.

Soon the water began to run a little colder and Sable reached for the soap. "We'd better get clean before the hot water runs out completely." He said, holding up the bottle.

"If you clean me I'll clean you," she said, taking the bottle from him, flipping the cap, and squeezing some of the green liquid into her palm.

He smiled and laughed. "Alright," he agreed, taking the bottle back and squeezing some into his own hands.

They laughed and soaped each other, switching places to get the sides that had been pressed into the tub, until the water became too chill to bear any longer, then shut off the spray and climbed out to wrap themselves in thick warm towels.

He gave her one of his robes and they went back into the kitchen, both of them starving. They had both forgotten the picnic lunch with everything else that had happened since, and all the activity had only increased the problem. He picked up the phone. "Chinese sound good? They deliver." He said.

She nodded happily. "Just hurry." She said. "I'm starving."

He placed a huge order for delivery and had them charge it to the credit card he kept on file, then went to the couch where Annie had already bundled herself into a nest of pillows, though not without leaving plenty of room for him to join her. She smiled and raised the blanket she'd thrown over her lap so he could slip in beside her. He grabbed the remote and did as she bid, sliding in among the nest of pillows. She settled warmly against him as he pulled up the menu of Netflix and began looking for something they could both enjoy.

That moment, with her laying against him, a warm breathing ball of energy and happiness as he did something as pedestrian as looking for something to watch on the television, felt even better than the actual sex and he smiled unconsciously.

They chose a series about a sleek sexy mink fur who was working as a model when she died and went to heaven only to press the return button and get sent back to earth in the body of a Panda working as a lawyer. Hilarity ensued. Both of them were enjoying the first episode when the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of their meal. Annie bolted for the door but Sable paused long enough to pause the show before heading to help her.

She had already pulled open the door and relieved the delivery guy, a young lion with tawny, rough looking fur and eyes swollen and red from a little too much weed, of the box that held most of the food. Sable gave the kid a grin and shook his head. "Do I need to sign anything?" He asked, as the lion passed him the two remaining bags and shook his head. "Na bro." He said, "Cute kid you've got there."

Sable suddenly realized that he'd made a mistake. He'd been sated, the hormones that spurred his desire sated, for the moment at least, but other males could still smell Annie's musk just as well as he'd smelled it this afternoon, with similar effects.

"Don't worry man," he said, "I'm mellow." The lion said with a grin. "Maybe I can just come in for a little while you know? I don't have another delivery for awhile."

Sable shook his head gently. "No, I don't think so." He said kindly. "I should have requested a female driver."

The young lion, realizing what he'd just said, grimaced. "Sorry man, didn't think about what I was saying. You and your daughter have a good night alright?" He reached into his pocket and forced something into Sable's hand. "Hey don't tell my boss okay? I need this job okay?" he stammered, and turned to hurry away from the house.

Sable looked at what the young man had pushed into his hand and chuckled at the two rather fat white joints. It was the first time he'd ever gotten a tip from a delivery guy rather than giving one and the thought made him laugh aloud.

"Whats so funny?" Annie asked as he slipped the joints into his pocket and closed the door.

He shook his head and gave her a smile.

The phone buzzed against the table at just that moment and Sable winced, remembering that Brandy had promised to call once she'd had a chance to talk to her husband.

"It's momma." Annie said. "Should I answer it?"

Sable nodded. "Do you know how to put it on speaker?"

Annie did, and she did. "Hey mom." She said, opening a box and looking inside to see which dish it contained.

"Hey sweety. Is Sable there?" Brandy said, her voice strained.

"I'm here." Sable said. "Should I go in another room? Does Mike want to talk to me?"

Brandy sighed. "Mike definitely doesn't want to talk to you." She said.

"Why not mom?" Annie asked. "Is daddy upset with us?"

Brandy was silent for a minute then they heard her take a deep breath before continuing. "Honey. Annie. What do you think is going to happen?" She asked.

"I'll be Sable's wife. I love him momma and you said we are going to have a little baby. I will miss you and daddy, but I'll have to stay with Sable now, he loves me too and he'll die without me around. I think I might die without him too momma, but you and daddy can come see me all the time." She said, her voice on the verge of breaking down into sobs. "Isn't that okay?"

"No baby," Brandy said, her voice choked with tears and on the verge of breaking down as well. "It can't happen that way. I'm sorry. Your daddy can't see past this. He's been on the phone with a lawyer for the last hour. I had to leave the room to call you. Sable, they're going to try to have you put down for this. I know that isn't the laws intent, but even if they make sure you can never see Annie again its a death sentence either way."

"No!" Annie yelled. "Daddy can't kill my Sable."

Sable put his arms around Annie, who was trembling in fear now.

"Brandy, maybe we should wait until you get home to discuss this?" He suggested.

"No," She said, her voice breaking. "Run Sable. Take my daughter and run. You can let me know where you end up somehow, someday, but I won't be responsible for killing you even if I hate you a little for taking my sweet Annie from me like this."

"Brandy?" Sable said.

"Momma?" Annie cried at the same time.

The phone was silent. She had disconnected the call.

Annie buried her face in Sable's fur and cried.

Did she understand?